We review our fees, costs, and revenues every two years to ensure we can recover the aggregate costs of trademark operations. Based on our latest review, we concluded that fee adjustments were necessary to provide Trademarks with sufficient resources to administer the U.S. trademark system. We set our adjusted fees to align with these four key factors:
- Promoting innovation strategies
- Aligning fees with the full cost of trademark services
- Setting fees to facilitate the effective administration of the trademark system
- Offering application processing options
Fee changes
This final rule set or adjusted 28 trademark fees. The changes became effective on January 18, 2025 for fees paid to the USPTO, and on February 18, 2025 for fees paid to WIPO. We’ll highlight some of those changes on this page. For a complete list, including fees for paper submissions, see the final rule.
View the Examination guide 1-25, published January 10, 2025.
Application fees
This final rule replaced the two types of application fees—Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS) Plus and TEAS Standard—with one base application fee for applications under Trademark Act Sections 1 and 44. Customers will also see additional fees based on the complexity and completeness of their application. However, we expect the majority of applicants will only pay the base fee and won't be subject to additional fees.
For Section 66(a)-based Madrid applications, we adjusted the existing application fee to a level that corresponds with what Madrid applicants would expect to pay, on average, if filing directly under the base application and surcharge system. These fees became effective February 18, 2025.
| Fee description | Old fee | Current fee |
|---|---|---|
| TEAS Standard application | $350 | n/a |
| TEAS Plus application | $250 | n/a |
| Base application (Sections 1 and 44), per class | n/a | $350 |
| Application fee filed with WIPO (Section 66(a)), per class | $500 | $600 |
| Subsequent designation fee filed with WIPO (Section 66(a)), per class | $500 | $600 |
We introduced additional fees for applications that are incomplete or contain custom identifications of goods or services. These fees aim to encourage more complete applications, which will improve examination efficiency and help reduce pendency.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is currently unable to collect additional fees before recording a Section 66(a) application. We'll reconsider a base filing and additional fee system for Madrid applications after WIPO develops the capacity to implement additional fees.
| Fee description | Old fee | Current fee |
|---|---|---|
| Insufficient information (Sections 1 and 44), per class | n/a | $100 |
| Using the free-form text box instead of the Trademark ID Manual within Trademark Center to identify goods and services (Sections 1 and 44), per class | n/a | $200 |
| Each additional group of 1,000 characters in the free-form text box beyond the first 1,000 (Sections 1 and 44), per affected class | n/a | $200 |
Post-registration maintenance fees
We increased the fees for post-registration maintenance filings to:
- Continue balancing the cost of base applications
- Offset higher processing costs for these filings
- Rebalance fee collections derived from these fees due to changes in demand and filing patterns
| Fee description | Old fee | Current fee |
|---|---|---|
| Section 9 registration renewal application, per class | $300 | $325 |
| Section 8 declaration, per class | $225 | $325 |
| Section 15 declaration, per class | $200 | $250 |
| Section 71 declaration, per class | $225 | $325 |
| Renewal fee filed at WIPO | $300 | $325 |
Petitions and letters of protest fees
The following updated fees help us recover more of the cost of processing petitions and letters of protest.
| Fee description | Old fee | Current fee |
|---|---|---|
| Petition to the Director | $250 | $400 |
| Petition to revive an application | $150 | $250 |
| Letter of protest | $50 | $150 |
Intent-to-use fees
We haven’t adjusted our amendment to allege use (AAU) and statement of use (SOU) fees since 2002, even as processing costs increased during the subsequent two decades. The examination time for these filings has also increased due to the volume of questionable specimens we receive, requiring us to issue more office actions.
| Fee description | Old fee | Current fee |
|---|---|---|
| Amendment to allege use (AAU), per class | $100 | $150 |
| Statement of use (SOU), per class | $100 | $150 |